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Is the NBA taking action again?
Infamous tanking: The Utah Jazz’s new tricks
The Utah Jazz were penalized by the NBA in the preseason for resting players to gain a better position in the NBA Draft. However, nothing has changed, but you can’t blame the franchise either.
“That won’t happen this year,” new president Austin Ainge announced during his summer introduction when asked about the Utah Jazz’s apparent tanking in the preseason. Since the departures of Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell, the Jazz have repeatedly been noticed by withdrawing players or resting them for individual games in the second half of the season.
In March 2025, the NBA finally took action and fined the franchise $100,000 because the league believed that former All-Star Lauri Markkanen was fit to play in a game in Washington. The Finn was officially absent due to back problems.
Immediately after the penalty, Markkanen played four more games, but the big man was again unavailable for the remaining 13 games. Of the last 26 games (Markkanen played those four), the Jazz have won just three. In the hope of Cooper Flagg, the Jazz fueled themselves from the fourth-worst record to the sole bottom position.
Utah: Markkanen plays less again
It didn’t help much, Utah slipped to fifth place in the draft lottery and had to make do with Ace Bailey. In previous years it was only enough for the ninth and tenth picks. In short: Utah lacked luck in previous years, and now they want to force it again.
In return, players, especially Markkanen, are again being kept out of “important” games. An example was the game against Charlotte. Two days earlier, the Finn had led the Jazz to a win against Dallas with 33 points. Markkanen was suddenly missing against the supposed “tank rival” Hornets and Utah was shot down 95:150.
The star has been out sick for two weeks and the Jazz lost in seven out of eight cases. Now, nothing should be assumed here, but it is certainly suspicious. At the same time, Utah’s path is understandable. As a team from a small market, superstars won’t choose the cold in Salt Lake City. Utah always had stars in John Stockton, Karl Malone, Mitchell and Gobert when they drafted themselves. Markkanen came via trade in the Mitchell deal, but was not considered a star at the time.
What happens this year: It is the last season in which Utah can run the risk of losing its own pick. It’s a legacy from 2021, when they still had championship hopes and sold Derrick Favors to the OKC Thunder. In return, a protected first-round pick was handed over, which will only go to the Thunder in the summer if it is outside the top 8. Accordingly, the Jazz will do everything in their power to ensure that this does not happen.
The Jazz have developed an interesting strategy for this. There are breaks for starters mainly in the “winnable” games, i.e. those that hardly attract any attention anyway. In some cases, the Jazz compete with lineups in which no one is older than 22 years old. And yet the Jazz have already accumulated 15 wins, which would only be the sixth-worst record as of now.
Utah is heading towards the draft again
In a deep draft with possible franchise stars like Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer or AJ Dybantsa, that may be enough for an upcoming star, but that is not guaranteed. The NBA’s lottery reform is only partially successful because it makes tanking less useful in the short term, but ensures that several teams remain bad for many years because they lacked luck with the ping-pong balls.
Utah is not the only team with this orientation, Washington, Indiana, Brooklyn and probably soon Sacramento will not (want to) win many games this season either. Most obviously, the Jazz continue to do so, also because they have the potential to win more. They don’t want to do it and that can be demonized, but the NBA is structured in such a way that it would be foolish not to do it.
| 2031 | ? | Own pick, plus Suns pick |
